Some existing vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatuses detect, from an image captured by an infrared camera mounted in a vehicle, the image of an attention needed object that should be the main object of a driver's attention (e.g., a human being (a pedestrian)) other than an artificial structure. Thereafter, if an attention needed object is detected, the vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatuses perform an alerting process (e.g., sounding an alarm) for a driver as needed (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-284057).